Aneka Jansen 6: The Lowest Depths of Shame

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘That’s the fastest ship in the Federation,’ Aneka said, ‘and your communications are down.’

  ‘Yes, but…’

  ‘It’s a long, long story and we’re here to help. This is Cassandra, that’s Al, and Cassandra has a backpack full of medical supplies and enough inoculations to keep you safe from this disease.’

  ‘Will it keep us safe from the… things?’

  ‘Chucks,’ Ella supplied. ‘I named them chucks, because you can’t be scared of something called chuck.’

  ‘You’ve encountered this before then?’

  ‘Oh yes. I spent a few weeks holed up like you are. Except I was alone until Aneka came to rescue me. This is caused by an engineered nanovirus. Someone did this to you, Representative, and it wasn’t the Herosians.’

  ‘Yes,’ Shaw said, ‘well, we’d figured that out for ourselves.’

  Sapphira.

  David Reman was a gangly sort of figure. Tall and thin, a bit shy around attractive women, and all brain. He was the pride and joy of the Sapphira academic community, considered one of the best minds on astrophysics in the Federation. Aneka knew that Abraham Wallace wanted him on Shadataga, but she thought it was likely to be a tough sell: Reman seemed like the kind of man who preferred a comfortable, quiet life at home.

  Unfortunately for him, he was having to deal with being the best mind they had available among the surviving people of Chance.

  ‘It seemed a bit odd to me,’ he was explaining, ‘that this plague kicked off not long after a new vaccine gets sent to us from New Earth. I’m not saying I don’t trust people from the core worlds, but the coincidence seemed a bit strong.’

  ‘A directive went around that we should have everyone inoculated,’ Shaw added. ‘It was just a precaution, they said. Sapphira was probably not of interest to the Herosians. But they were producing enough for everyone, just in case. “High value assets” would be protected first. It actually said that. So we’re pretty sure they’d done most of Sapphira Vista and the orbital stations before the symptoms started showing. Of course, we stopped any injections as soon as we realised there might be a connection, and not many got done because the supply was short, but…’

  ‘I managed to get my hands on one dose,’ Reman went on. ‘Swarming with these little organic nanomachines. We don’t have that kind of technology. And we found the same thing in samples taken from some of these… chucks was it?’

  ‘Uh-huh,’ Ella replied. She seemed determined that the name should stick.

  Reman grinned a little. ‘It does make them seem a little less threatening. Anyway, the stuff in the “vaccine” is also in the chucks, but far more active. Unfortunately, this kind of science is a little out of my field. I wouldn’t know where to start manufacturing a cure…’

  ‘There’s no cure,’ Aneka said flatly. ‘They’re dead. They die and then they get… reanimated as those things. Walking, groaning, disease vectors. They even clean up their own mess. They’ll cannibalise their own kind if they can’t get fresh meat.’

  ‘We do have inoculations against it,’ Ella said, ‘but… I’m sorry, there’s nothing you can do for these people. I did see evidence of survivors outside the town…’

  ‘So…’ Shaw began. ‘We need to kill them. All of them.’

  Aneka nodded, putting a hand on the big man’s shoulder. ‘Al and I will go out in the morning and clean up the town as best we can. We’ll go out after that and take vaccines out to the nearby settlements. We can’t stay forever, but we can help as best we can…’

  ‘With the town clear, we can handle the vaccinations,’ Shaw said. ‘I think, if you’re willing, we could use someone taking a look at Sapphira Vista and seeing what state the orbital stations are in.’

  ‘Okay. Sounds like a plan. For now, we need to give everyone their shots and then get through the night.’

  ‘Oh,’ Reman said, ‘we’ve got very good at getting through the night.’

  ~~~

  ‘How did you survive?’ Ella asked.

  They were sitting in one of the lecture theatres around heaters which apparently ran off some form of stabilised hydrogen. It was sufficiently far into the building that it isolated them from the chucks outside and it was sealed via the addition of some heavy furniture which they had dragged in to block the doors.

  ‘A lot of it is thanks to David and a few of the students,’ Shaw said. ‘He set up alarms around the building so that if something did get in we were ready. And he isolated the virus, of course, which helped us avoid catching it. We’re not big on food fabrication here, as you can imagine, but there were a couple of units around so that students knew how they worked and David managed to persuade one of these heaters to supply power.’

  ‘It’s a basic hydrogen fuel cell,’ Reman said, dismissing the matter.

  Shaw smiled. ‘We have some guns, though we’re getting low on ammunition…’

  ‘We can help there,’ Aneka said. ‘I’ve got a few things you can use. Energy weapons. As long as you can charge the cells, they’ll run as long as you need them. I’ll train some of your people up on them before we go. They’re… special.’

  Ella patted her rifle, sitting beside her on the floor. ‘Antimatter pulse rifle, for when you absolutely have to be sure it’s dead. And usually in pieces. Don’t be near what it hits.’

  ‘Isn’t that Xinti technology?’ Reman asked.

  ‘The Xinti used them,’ Aneka said, ‘but these are from a slightly different source. There’s a group of AIs who have created a university on a world called Shadataga. They were Xinti, sort of, but they’ve been alone for a long time and they want to teach what they know. Abraham Wallace is with them now.’ She looked at Reman. ‘I know he’d like to see you there. They were the ones who created that collapsed star he told you about when he was here.’

  The scientist’s eyes lit up and then he looked down, frowning. ‘I don’t know… I’ve never been off Sapphira. I like it here…’

  ‘And maybe it’s time you broadened your horizons,’ Shaw said. ‘It would be prestigious for us to have someone attend something like that and you could learn so much.’

  ‘I hate long trips.’

  ‘Oh,’ Ella said, grinning, ‘by the time we’re ready to take on students they’ll have the wormhole system up and running. We can come pick you up in the Hyde. It’ll take us a day to get back.’

  Reman blinked. ‘Wormhole… Where is this planet?’

  ‘It’s not far from Old Earth, actually. I mean, relatively not far.’

  ‘And it’ll take a day. By wormhole.’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘I think,’ Shaw said, ‘that if we get through this, he’s sold.’

  21.2.531 FSC.

  ‘There are sixteen chucks gathered in front of the building,’ Gwy told Aneka. ‘They appear to be ignoring me. I assume this is because I am inedible.’

  ‘That’s probably the reason, yes.’ Aneka grinned and Shaw gave her a funny look.

  ‘I could use my turret on them, but there is danger of damage to the building,’ Gwy added.

  ‘Yeah. We’ll handle it.’ Aloud she said, ‘Can we get up on the roof?’

  ‘Yes,’ Shaw told her. ‘There are some of them outside?’

  ‘Not for long. Al, get ready here. When I’ve cleared the door, go out and take out anything still in the area and hold until I come down.’

  Al executed a smart salute. ‘By your command,’ he said.

  ‘And stop doing Cylon impressions.’

  ‘I lack the flashing red eye slot,’ he replied as she followed Shaw out of the foyer.

  ‘Smart arse. Ella, come with us. You’ll post up top and take out anything that comes near while we’re out.’

  Ella grabbed her rifle and ran after them. ‘I kind of hope they do. I don’t think I got enough payback last time.’

  ‘Ella, you used to be such a sweet girl…’

  ~~~

  It took Aneka a couple of minutes to pick off the chucks c
losest to the door with her rifle. The angle was difficult and getting a good line of sight took time. That meant that Shaw was back down in the foyer to help Cassandra open the door by the time Aneka signalled that it was clear.

  The door opened and Al marched out onto the steps. There were still four or five of the creatures hiding under Gwy having run off as their fellows had fallen. Al waited among the bodies of their brethren until they charged forward, and then mowed them down with his rifle.

  ‘Vashma,’ Shaw muttered as Al stepped forward a few more paces and stood there like a statue, ‘he’s… brutally efficient. Is he a soldier or something?’

  Cassandra smiled. ‘Oh no. He’s my sex toy,’ she said.

  ~~~

  The sex toy was also a very respectable weapons platform. He ran backup as Aneka went building to building through the town cutting down chucks as she went.

  Shaw suspected that there might be other people hidden in some of the buildings, so they went about the culling process slowly and methodically. Each building was checked for any sign of survivors. They were not having a lot of luck.

  Al hosed down a doorway from which there seemed to be a near-endless supply of chucks. ‘Do you think anyone else is actually alive?’ he asked, speaking inside Aneka’s head.

  ‘Honestly? If there was someone I’d have thought they’d have tried for the university.’

  ‘Perhaps they did not realise there was anyone there. We would have been hard-pressed to find them if Mister Reman had not jury-rigged that transmitter.’

  ‘True, but… I’m trying not to be optimistic. If the entire town has been reduced to thirty people…’

  ‘Even I find it hard to believe we will find many more.’ The stream of chucks abated and Al shut off his rifle. ‘I need to change the magazine.’

  ‘Those things hold four thousand rounds!’ She fished another of the big, box mags from his backpack anyway.

  ‘And this weapon delivers them at a very high rate. You have had to change both magazines twice and you waste fewer rounds on hitting air. We are doing a lot of killing.’

  ‘Not killing,’ Aneka said. ‘They’re already dead.’

  ‘They seem to need reminding.’

  ‘Yeah…’

  ‘Hey!’ The voice came from above them and somewhere to their left and Aneka turned, looking in that direction. ‘Hey, we’re up here!’

  A woman was half hanging out of a window on an upper floor of the next block. She looked somewhere on the young side of middle age, except that for a Jenlay that could have been anything from fifty to a hundred and fifty.

  ‘I see you,’ Aneka called back. ‘Wait there, we’ll come up.’ She glanced at Al. ‘We’re going that way,’ she said, grinning.

  ~~~

  In all they found another fifteen people hiding out in sealed-off bunkers around the northern side of Chance. Many were looking malnourished, but they were alive and Gwy had supplies of food packs and rehydration salts aboard to help keep everyone fed.

  Each time they found a few people, they had to escort them back to the university, which slowed down the process of clearance. By dusk they were fairly sure they had killed everything that was already dead in the northern part of the town.

  ‘We’ll need to go out again tomorrow,’ Aneka said as they gathered for the evening.

  ‘How many…?’ Shaw began.

  ‘I’m really trying not to keep count. Al could tell me, I’ve no doubt.’

  ‘Al is rather keen not to innumerate the toll either,’ Al replied. ‘I do have records of all the still functional identity transponders we’ve encountered. I can supply that list to you when this is done, Representative.’

  ‘That would be… helpful, thank you. I didn’t realise that you were a robot, Mister…’

  ‘It’s just Al. We assumed that the news regarding Aneka’s nature had reached this far.’

  ‘Oh… uh, yes. We saw the reports, of course. I think there were a few signatures from Sapphira on that petition that was raised. Well… I know there were, but… Wait, wasn’t the AI in that interview they aired called Al?’

  ‘One and the same,’ Al replied, smiling. ‘This drone body was constructed for me on Shadataga. My actual “mind,” if you wish, still resides within Aneka, but I can operate this body remotely, within range, which can be useful.’

  ‘Cassandra said you were her… um…’

  ‘Sex toy,’ Cassandra supplied.

  Aneka and Ella burst into a fit of giggles.

  ‘One of the reasons for the construction was to allow me to have a more physical relationship with Cassandra, yes. We are both AIs. She is emergent, I was designed, but we are both capable of experiencing… emotions. It was rather complicated before I got this. Now we can actually behave like two Jenlay in love.’

  ‘If love is precisely the word for it,’ Cassandra said. ‘I wouldn’t even like to say that Al experiences the same reaction to me as I do to him. However, “love” is definitely the Jenlay equivalent of what we have for each other and I was very pleased when the Shadataga AIs agreed to supply Al with a body so that we could have a more direct relationship.’

  Reman, looking a little pink around the cheeks, looked at Aneka. ‘And this relationship was ongoing while he was just an AI in your head?’

  ‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka said, grinning. To be honest she was glad the subject had moved off dead chucks. ‘Like Al said, it was complicated. Mostly they just liked to talk. My sex life was a constant source of amusement to them.’

  ‘Not constant,’ Cassandra said. ‘I mean, you were off-world some of the time.’

  ~~~

  Aneka had posted herself up on the southern side of the roof with her rifle. Occasionally she would lift it, sight carefully, and fire. The periodic loud cracks were stopping Ella from nodding off, mostly.

  ‘Five hundred and eighty-two metres,’ Aneka said after one shot.

  ‘You hit it?’

  ‘Watched its head explode. It’s a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, but I expect they’ll give up soon. They don’t sleep, if I remember right, but they aren’t much use in the dark and all the street lights are out.’

  ‘Of course you remember it right.’

  ‘Turn of phrase. You’re right. I should stop using it.’

  ‘You’re very good with that thing though.’

  ‘I’m very good with a lot of weapons. I was before the Xinti got me. One of my instructors got pissed off at me for being the best marksman in the class he taught.’

  ‘He got annoyed at you? Why not the others?’

  ‘I did mention I left the Army partially because they were a bunch of pricks, right?’

  ‘I guess. I’m just not used to that kind of thing. I mean, people can still be sexist, but if you’re good at something you generally don’t get called out on it.’

  Aneka raised her rifle and fired again. ‘Yeah, well… anyway, with this thing I could probably hit a gnat’s genitals on the horizon. It’s not exactly what I’d describe as a skilled job.’

  ‘Aneka,’ Gwy said into both their heads, ‘I am detecting rapid movement seven hundred metres south of you. Bearing one-nine-four.’

  Lifting the rifle again, Aneka aimed it in the direction Gwy indicated, the scope zooming in on a group of figures running north. She lost them behind a building and then caught sight of them again as they appeared at a junction.

  ‘Shit! One of those is alive.’ She put her rifle on the ground and started for the edge of the roof. ‘Get downstairs and tell them we have an incoming guest.’ Then she dropped off the side of the building.

  The fall might have been an issue for a normal person, but Aneka had the whole metal skeleton thing going for her. She landed, rolled, and was upright and running before Ella managed to get to her feet.

  ‘Wow…’ Ella said, watching her run off into the darkness. ‘Winter really did boost her running speed.’

  It took Aneka a little over twenty-six seconds to locate the woman running at
full sprint in the general direction of the university, guided by Gwy’s sensors. She looked like she was going to drop when Aneka arrived, and there were maybe ten chucks on her tail.

  ‘Lady, are you crazy?’ Aneka asked as she pulled her pistols, firing in the same motion.

  ‘Thought… they’d be… asleep,’ the woman gasped.

  ‘They don’t sleep. They don’t move much at night because they can’t see.’ The woman looked at her torch. ‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka said. ‘Toss it. I can get you to the university without light.’

  To her credit, the woman turned and threw the heavy flashlight straight at the head of a chuck. It reared back, and then Aneka shot it in the face. As the street plunged into deeper darkness, Aneka holstered her pistols, grabbed the woman, slung her over her shoulder, and started back toward the university at a somewhat slower pace than she had come from it. Just not much slower.

  ~~~

  ‘Cam?’ Shaw asked as Aneka hustled the woman in through the doors. ‘Cam Forrester?’

  ‘Representative Shaw!’ Her exclamation was punctuated by a burst of fire from one of Aneka’s pistols and then the slamming of the door.

  ‘I’m glad to see you’re safe, but what possessed you to come running out here at night?’

  ‘I’d like to know that too,’ Aneka said, frowning in a distinctly disapproving way.

  ‘We heard the gunfire north of us all day,’ Forrester said, still having a little trouble with her breathing. She looked fit enough, and she was sort of dressed for running. The locals generally wore more conservative clothes than Aneka saw in the core, but Forrester was in a cropped T-shirt and running shorts. ‘We were hoping it would come south, but…’

  ‘We?’ Shaw asked.

  ‘Uh… there are about thirty of us. Down at the school. I was teaching netball there, like I usually do, when this big crowd of those things just… came out of nowhere. We’ve got twenty-two kids, a few teachers, one or two others who’ve found their way there. We had food, but it’s getting really low, and we had one rifle, but that’s out…’

  ‘Gwy, plot me a route to this school,’ Aneka said silently. ‘Al…’